Gwaihir
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Posts posted by Gwaihir
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I worry more about real estate agents on local Council Executive Committees. Hello mergers, good-bye camp(s).
it pains me that Treasure Island, the birthplace of the OA is closed and up for sale.
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Take it from a 6 year old, my boy's favorite section is the Scouts in Action comics. It was my favorite section as a boy reading Boys Life too.
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Totally unplanned.
So is the implication that people will hate the New Scouting so much they will join Classic Scouting?
yup, totally unplanned (tho some conspiracy theories say otherwise), but yeah, maybe a shift to classic scouting is just what the program needs.
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Oh, I'm not so sure about that. It may very well have been a businessman who came up with the new policy changes. Perhaps it was the same marketing genius who brought us New Coke.
New Coke ultimately proved to be the single greatest marketing move Coke ever did. New Coke was so awful, so poorly received that Classic Coke sales blew the roof off the previous sales figures.
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is the kid still a cub? If not, it wouldn't surprise me if the parent was just looking to push her agenda and come out with a settlement from the get-go.
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I always wear one. Our Troop is very proud of the necker we designed. We use the world scouting model and wear the neckers with or without the uniform.
I always have issue with adult leaders, especially the paid leadership, when they do not wear the proper uniform including a necker. Our Scout Executive rarely wears a uniform, he normally looks like a used car salesman or a sales guy at a discount store, if he is not proud to be seen in uniform how can we expect it from our Scouts and volunteers?
same here, I always wear mine. Our exec never is in uniform either, and yeah, he totally comes off as a used car salesman.
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Shemaghs anyone?
careful now, we don't want to be accused of being a military organization! (even if it's an extremely useful bit of gear)
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interesting article / opinion piece on neckerchiefs
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So one of the things I've noticed right off the bat... is seeing the proliferation of handheld video games by the Webelos and AOL scouts (and some of their younger siblings in the other dens) at Pack meetings. For me, this is not only disrespectful to the other dens, it's a clear sign the older boys are bored. Anyone run into this in their units and have some tips on weaning that out? Granted the AOLs will age out and cross over, but I really want to nip this in the bud but without dropping some kind of ban hammer on them. That's only going to breed resentment. Thoughts?
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@@Gwaihir,
The nice thing about cub scouts is that in two years, you will be the old guy, no one will remember that you were the new guy.
too true.
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Being a new guy is difficult at best. What we often omit in the discussion is the importance and power of silence. Listen, observe and reserve judgment. Gather the intel and be patient. The time will come when someone in the group offers an opening. "Well, you've been here for a while. What do you think?" Now you can speak from your experience of what you've learned by watching, listening, and keeping one's mouth shut.
Others often are bothered by silence and will open the door for you to walk through unimpeded.
Thanks Stosh, thats good advice I'll keep in the back pocket.
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Cooking stoves get really hot, I recommend you not touch them.
which is a pretty good recommendation.
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then by that mentality, the BSA has no regulation, or standard when it comes to number of square knots. they have recommendations. recommendations are not hard and fast.
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got it, thanks all.
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By my beard, how dare he? Doesn't he know better?!?
Except, of course, that those aren't square knots, that's not a BSA Scout uniform, and he is actually following correct uniform procedure for his day and that organization, which was of course the British Royal Army, of which he was an actual general, AND the fact that he is Lieutenant General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell himself, and that man can do WHATEVER HE WANTS AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED. When a Scouter reaches that level of accomplishment, maybe they can wear more than three rows too, haha.
I did have a good laugh though of course, thanks Stosh! Ha ha ha
So then this photo of the same guy is ok?
though admittedly, he retired a Lt. Colonel, not a Lt. General.
Still tho, impressive military career. -
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I feel like all of us who have been suckered
into the position are standing around you in a circle chanting "Drink the Coolaid!"In all seriousness, as long as you are confident that from the start you will not have to do the entire thing yourself (i.e. you have at least some reliable support), then that will give you the time you need to draft additional help and leaders to support your vision. Sometimes, having this type of change (committee changes after the CM change or vice versa) can be good - if you have a strong vision of what you would like to accomplish.
In my case, I loved doing it, and I was able to bring my vision of some changes I wanted to see, but I was also sometimes intimidated by trying to direct others that had been there and leading the pack (or at least their dens) longer than I had.
everything youve stated has run through my head, and despite my better judgement (i kid), and with some of the encouragement here, I took the position last night. Now comes the hard part.
I'm looking forward to the challenge tho. Like you said, trying to direct those who are set in their ways and have been doing this a long time, vs the 6th month in new guy... will be interesting. -
everything TLS just said.
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Let's not lose focus here. No one is questioning the guy's commitment to the program or kids. My point was some adults seek the adulation for show, e.g., knots galore.
oh, I don't disagree. I'm not saying you're questioning his commitment and my original response was specific to Mike Walton, who was the man in the photo, not others who do it solely for the knots.
I think my point was, if you earn the knots through service to the organization and the boys it serves, great, wear em if you want, don't wear em if you dont want. If you're doing it for personal glorification, you're doing it for the wrong reasons, but maybe, hopefully, someone else doesn't know that maybe it inspires others around you to become registered leaders and dedicate their time to Scouting and will do it for the right reasons.
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for the uninitiated, what is IH?
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very helpful, thank you for this!
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Still...are we in it for ourselves or the kids? We really need 17 to demonstrate you are a skilled, experienced leader?
to each his own I guess. Though I'd say 40+ years of volunteering your life to Scouts is pretty "for the kids"
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...and this is why knots should be limited. You'll end up looking like this. 17 knots? Really?
His response to that:
You look like a General in the Scouts. Are you one? Can you explain all of the badges you proudly wear please?
Thanks for the compliment. Actually, I am more like an old Sergeant Major or Chief Master Petty Officer -- one of those "old guys" that have been around the program for a long time and can tell you many things about the program today and in the past - some not in print! There are people who say that I don't "have a life" even though I really do have an active life. Between my hobbies, which include travel, reading, writing and listening to a variety of music, I have family and great friends all over the nation whom I visit or stay in touch with. I enjoy yard sales and auctions, and not just for the Scouting-related items. My home is designed in "Early American Yard Sale", with many of the things housing books, binders and knic-knacks coming from other homes!
Others have stated that "I'm a show-off", wearing "every badge I've ever earned or received". In reality, I could not fit everything I have received or earned over a fourty-plus year Scouting period on my shirt, nor would I want to do so if I could! I only wear a HALF of the awards I have received or earned; some I have refused to wear simply because I feel they were just "given" to me as an excuse and not for anything I have truly performed or was deeply involved in.
And if I had to wear only one of those "knot things" on my shirt, my Eagle Scout Badge with the Silver and Gold palms would be the one I would choose to wear.
I am very sensitive to wearing the shirt you see above to formal Scouting events; there are other events in which I will "tone down the Christmas Tree", as as my second former spouse Jessica called that shirt. Instead, I will wear another shirt with much less items on it. Unless I'm a part of the program, a "toned down" shirt is what I would wear to Eagle Scout Courts of Honor, shifting the "wow" from some guy standing in the back or side of the room to where it needs to be -- with the Scout being honored with the highest rank in Boy Scouting: the Eagle Scout Badge.
I keep a shirt and set of Wood Badge beads in the trunk of my car just for those "drive by" opportunities!
The awards I wear can be earned or received by any volunteer, and in the grander scheme of life, I hold only a few of those special awards. There are many, many others whom have received or earned many, many more of those special awards than I have. Most recently, I was honored by the Iraqi Scouting Association with their National Service Award; and have received other nation's service awards (among them, one from Germany and the other from the Netherlands). I am also an Silver Beaver Award holder. I do hold two local or Regional "Silver" (Silver Big Horn and Silver Scouter) Awards. However, I am NOT a Vigil Honor member of the Order of the Arrow.
I am a receipient of the Arrow of Light (Cub Scouting), Eagle Scout (Boy Scouting) and Exploring Achievement (Exploring) Awards. Additionally, I hold the William T. Hornaday Conservation Award, the BSA Heroism Award, and the Youth Leadership in America Award earned as a Post President. I have earned a youth and received several adult religious emblems; and has been honored with several awards for service to a Council Exploring Division, to the Exploring program of a local Council, and to rural and urban youth in the central western part of Appalachia. I own the National, two Regional and two local Council Exploring Leadership Awards.
I have received training awards as a Cub Scout, Boy Scout, Exploring, and Sea Exploring leader; training keys as a Scoutmaster, Explorer Advisor, Committeemember, and Commissioner; the Distinguished Commissioner Award of Merit as well as Awards of Merit for service as an Exploring leader and as a Scoutmaster. I also hold the three-bead Wood Badge and the Sea Badge advanced volunteer training awards.
On my uniform shirt I wear an international encampment emblem (called InterCamp) in which I attended and later served on staff of for several years; and an Order of the Arrow Lodge flap from one of the three Lodges in which I did most of my service within (Zit-Kala-Sha). The other two Lodges are Black Eagle (in Europe) and Kawida (in central and eastern Kentucky). I have uniforms with flaps from all three Lodges as well as with the flap from the local Council's lodge in which I'm associated with when I'm there...
You won't find an Eagle Scout Badge on my shirt, but rather a square knot emblem (if you look really close in the above photo, it's in the center of the second row... adults wear the square knot associated with the award; youth members wear the actual award) which represents the fact that I have earned Eagle.
http://www.scoutinsignia.com/mwalton.htm
Mike Walton (settummanque) // November 21, 2012 at 10:18 pm // Reply
Jerry: The “nine†number Bryan referred to is *suggested* and does appear in the current edition of the Insignia (Control) Guide. The number has been going up and down — it was nine before the 2010 National Scout Jamboree; then it was 15 and then 12 after the Jamboree. The Task Force on Insignia and Uniforming hasn’t made a definative official decision…because as I’ve illustrated above here and elsewhere, it’s really tough to tell Scouters who have been a part of the movement for 60, 70 years that “you can only wear nine of those…â€
With time, we’ll get back down to something around 24 of them, and most Scouters will be wearing something around nine to 15 of them over their lifetime.
Mike Walton (settummanque) // March 6, 2014 at 5:29 pm // Reply
I did this before in another discussion which went down this line…but here goes again:
Which NINE or 12 (or even 15!) you want *me* to wear, Bob?
Do I wear only the six youth awards I earned as a kid? Okay. I can do this. This leaves three more (if we’re going at nine being the ‘top limit’) or six more (which would make it 12).
Do I wear the Scouters’ Training Award and Scouters’ Key? Okay. How about the adult Religious emblem? Ummm yeah. Gotta represent the faith and the other faiths which gave me their religious service medallions. How about the Whitney Young Service Award? District Award of Merit? Silver Beaver — oh yeah.
(keeping track of the number??)
So now I am faced with decisions: Do I wear the International Scouter Award? The Speakers Bank Award? West Fellowship?
Um…Don’t know. And then there’s a couple others like the Boyce Organizer Award and the Sea Badge. Wait. I can wear the actual Sea Badge on the uniform where it’s supposed to be worn. One less knot.
Then there’s those five Cub Scout (Training) award knots. I earned the WEBELOS Den Leader, Cub Scouter, Den Leader Coach — and then because I’m one of those OLD guys, the old Den Leader Training and Den Leader Coach Training Awards.
So tell me — which nine, 12, or even 15 do I wear? Go to my website and look at the photo of me outside Baghdad, Iraq and you’ll see which ones I have decided and which ones I chose otherwise.
THAT is why we have problems with this…because each person, NOT the BSA, has made their own valued decisions for their own reasons, what personal recognitions they chose to wear on the field uniform. And dude — I am NOT going to be *that guy* who walks up to some 80 or 90 year old Scouter and tell him “sir, you can only wear nine of those now….you look foolish.â€
I’d rather be slapped around with a cold salmon, thank you very much! *smiling*
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this hit the web shortly after the Milo scandal broke.
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Do it! You will regret it if you don't. You know the system and know how it should be run.
yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
Adult Uniform Shirts in Tall sizes?
in Uniforms
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Do they make uniform shirts in tall sizes? I'm getting tired of raising my arms over my head or doing the cub scout sign and then having to retuck in my shirt because it's too short for me. Thanks in advance!